Activists plan to retake former settlement

March 26, 2007 9:00am

Israeli security forces prepared to face off against settler activists planning to retake an evacuated West Bank settlement.

Hundreds of activists arrived in Homesh early Monday, predicting that thousands more would come. Police and army forces will try to prevent the group from rebuilding Homesh, which was evacuated in
August 2005 as part of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and part of the
northern West Bank.

The
march is taking place in defiance of the mainstream settler leadership.
Organizers, many of them upset with the settler leadership’s handling of the withdrawal, vowed to rebuild Homesh and said it was the start of a new campaign against
future government initiatives to remove settlers.